For The Love of a Mudblood
by stars shine out
Summary: Snape's death from his POV, with back story. Because he never stopped loving Lily, not even in the face of death. **onesided Snily
1. For The Love Of A Mudblood

**Wow… this has to be one of my favorite stories I've ever written. Seriously. It's rather sad, and rather sweet, (I think) and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it. **

**Disclaimer: All things Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling.**

Severus Snape made his way slowly to the shrieking shack to meet the Dark Lord, for what might be the last time. He hated what he had to do. He had gone down the wrong path when he had chosen the friends he had, but Lily kept giving him chances. He knew he should have taken one. He knew that now. And then he had called her a mudblood. It was one of the biggest mistakes of his life. He had lost her friendship that day. Her friendship, and all chance of making her love him. But, he asked himself, had he not called her a mudblood, had he not gone death eater, could she have loved him back? He hoped so.

He thought of how, on the full moon of each month, so Remus Lupin would not be there, he went to visit her grave. Of how he always left a single yellow rose. Roses were her favourite flower. She had told him that once. She said she liked them because they were beautuful if you appreciated them. they had thorns, but they were pretty, and had a sweet scent. He remembered her telling him that she liked yellow roses best, because they represent love everlasting. She liked them better than red roses, because in muggle movies, they always give out red roses, to mean love. It seemed to cliche to her. He remembered how she had then asked him his favourite flower. He told her he didn't have one. But it wasn't true. His favourite was lilies, because they reminded him of her.

He thought of what he had been doing the past 16 years. He thought he had been protecting her son. Really, he had been making sure he would die at the right time by the right hand. He thought of the risks he had taken, all for her. But they seemed like nothing. Nothing to redeem the fact that he was the reason they were dead.

He stopped walking, surprised to find himself at the shrieking shack already. _Be strong_, he told himself, _Be brave, like Lily. Be brave for Lily_.

He entered the shack, and went to the room with the secret passage way, where he found Lord Voldemort waiting for him. He was sitting in an armchair that had once been grand, though was now ripped and torn, as well as covered in dust. Floating mid-air was nagini, in an enchanted sphear. He had to find the boy. Harry had to know the truth.

Severus bowed to him, then said "My Lord, their resistance is crumbling-"

"-and it is doing so without your help." said Voldemort, as Snape bowed his head.

_Good_, he thought _the last thing I want to do help to destroy Hogwarts and the people in it_.

"Skilled wizard though you are, Severus, I do not thingk you will make much difference now." Voldemort continued.

_I hope I do make a difference,_ Severus thought, _because if I don't, these past sixteen years have been a waste._

"We are almost there... almost." Voldemort finished.

"Let me find the boy. Let me bring you Potter. I know I can find him, My Lord. Please." said Severus, as he walked quickly to the other side of the room to look at the gryffindor scarf hanging on the wall. It reminded him of Lily. He reached out and touched it, inhaling the scent. He smelt traces of roses. Lily's perfum. It was her scarf. _It made sense, _he thought. _Potter and his friends would have shown this place to her. Not during a full moon, but she would have known it existed, and what happened there every full moon, by seventh year. _

He heard Voldemort stand behind him. "I have a problem, Severus." He said softly.

"My Lord?" said Snape, turning to face Voldemort. He could still smell Lily's perfum and it gave him strength.

Voldemort raised the Elder Wand, holding it as delicately and precisely as a conductor's baton. "Why doesn't it work for me, Severus?" He asked.

Severus panicked, finally understanding the depth of the situation. He was here to die. _Oh well, _he told himself, _It will be for Lily. And I will see her again. I'll finally be able to stop this masquarade. _But then a sudden thought hit him. _The boy! Harry had to know, he had to know that it was his time to die. _He looked down, peering throught the crack in the trapdoor._ Were his eyes deceiving him, or did he see a finger? No, he could really see it. He knew what this meant. Potter was there, listening and watching, under the invisibility cloak. All was not lost._

"My-my Lord?" He said, fighting to keep his face and voice blank. "I do not understand. You-you have performed extraordinary magic with that wand."

"No," said Voldemort. "I have performed my usual magic. I am extraordinary, but this wand... no. It has not revealed the wonders it has promised. I feel no difference between this wand and the oneI procured from Ollivander all those years ago." Voldemort's tone remainded calm, but Severus saw the finger clenching, and knew Voldemort was mad.

"No difference." Voldemort repeated.

Severus could tell he was in danger, that if he didn't say the right words, he would die. Even if he did say the right words, he would probably still die. _Would it be best to stay silent? Or to try and reassure his master, and possibly make it out of the situation alive?_

Voldemort began to pace. "I have thought long and hard, Severus... do you know why I have called you back from the battle?"

Severus looked up at the snake. The snake that had to die. Was there any way to take the snake to death with him? Making up his mind quickly, he decided to lie, as he had so often done before. "No, my Lord, but I beg you will let me return. Let me find Potter."

"You sound like Lucius. Neither of you understands Potter as I do. He does not need finding. Potter will come to me. I know his weakness, you see, his one great flaw. He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it is for him that it happens. He will want to stop it at any cost. He will come. "

"But my Lord, he might be killed by one other than yourself-" Severus said in a desperate attempt to salvage the situation.

"My instructions to my Death Eaters have been perfectly cleas. Capture Potter. Kill his friends - the more, the better,-" Severus winced inwardly at this, "but do not kill him.

But it is of you that I wished to speak, Severus, not Harry Potter. You have been very valuable to me. Very valuable."

Severus hoped this wasn't true, though he said "My Lord knows I seek only to serve him. But-let me go and find the boy, my Lord. Let me bring him to you. I know I can-"

"I have told you,no!" Voldemort said, turning away from Severus and gazing up at his snake, his red eyes glinting. "My concern at the moment, Severus, is what will happen when I finally meet the boy!"

"My Lord, there can be no question, surely -?"

"-but there _is_ a question, Severus. There is." Voldemort said. He looked down at the Elder Wand as he slid it through his fingers. "Why did both the wands I have used fail when directed at a Harry Potter?"

Severus did not think this was a fair question. After all, he was a potions and DADA expert, not learned in wandlore. Then again, when was life ever fair? "I - I cannot answer that, my Lord."

"Can't you?" Voldemort said, and Severus heard the rage in his voice, as the Dark Lord turned to face Snape.

"My wand of yew did everything of which I asked it, Severus, except to kill Harry Potter. Twice it failed. Ollivander told me under torture of the twin cores, told me to take another's wand. I did so, but Lucius's wand shattered upon meeting Potter's."

"I - I have no explanation, my Lord." said Severus, avoiding Voldemort's eyes, his gaze upon the snake floating in mid-air.

"I sought a third wand, Severus. The Elder Wand, the Wand of Destiny, the Deathstick. I took it from its previous master. I took it from the grave of Albus Dumbledore."

Severus now looked at his master, his face pale and emotionless. "My Lord - let me go to the boy -"

"All this long night, when i am on the brink of victory, I have sat here," said Voldemort in a voice barely louder than a whisper. "wondering, wondering, why the Elder Wand refuses to be what it ought to be, refuses to perform as legend says it must perform for its rightful owner... and I think I have the answer."

Severus said nothing, but his thoughts were racing. He remembered hearing once that to master a wand, you did not have to kill it's previous owner, only disarm them when they are unwilling to hand over thier wand... That was it! Dumbledore's wand had been lying on the floor, several feet away from him. Had Draco disarmed him? Was Draco the master of the Elder Wand? If he was... then the wand wouldn't work properly for Voldemort... that may be the thing that could save the world...

"Perhaps you already know it? You are a clever man, after all, Severus. You have been a good and faithful servant, and I regret what must happen."

_A good and faithful servant,_ thought Severus, _never._ "My Lord -"

"The Elder Wand cannot serve me properly, Severus, because I am not its true master. The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner. you killed Albus Dumbledore. While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot be truly mine."

"My Lord!" said Severus, raising his wand in panic. While he had come to the conclusion that he would not survive this encounter with the Dark Lord, it did not mean he had come to terms with death. Long ago, he thought he had, but now, staring it in the face, he did not accept it. His instinct was to fight it, as he had done the past 16 years, yet now, he had to accept it and let it come. It was time to die, time to die for Lily.

"It cannot be any other way," said Voldemort. "I must master the wand, Severus Master the wand, and I master Potter at last." Then Voldemort slashed the Elder Wand throught the air. It did nothing to Severus, who thought for a moment that perhaps the Dark Lord did not intend to do anything. How very wrong he was.

The snake's cage began rolling through the air and before Severus could do anything but yell, it encased his head and shoulders. Voldemort then hissed something Severus did not understand, but the meaning soon became clear.

The snake lunged at him, and he let loose a terrible scream as it's fangs pierced his flesh. He tried desperatly to push the cage off him, but couldn't as his knees buckled and he fell to the ground, slumped against the wall.

"I regret it." said Voldemort, sounding as though he did not regret it in the least. He turned away, summoning the enchanted cage with the snake in it after him. He swept out of the room without a backwards glance, the great serpent floating after him in it's enchanted bubble.

Blood gushed from Snape's neck, as the poison entered his veins and very slowly began to kill him. His hand found his way up to his neck, as he tried to block the blood pouring from his neck. His entire body shook, as he gazed up at Lily's scarf hanging above him. The scent of her perfum lingered in his nostrils, each breath harder than the last.

He heard the creaking floor, and looked over to see Harry himself climbing out of the trap door. The boy who hated him. The boy who had to die. The boy who had to know.

Harry bent low over him, and Severus knew what he had to do. He grabbed the front of Harry's robes and gasped, "Take... it... take... it..." He let the memories Harry needed to see flow out of his mind.

People may wonder if once you remove a memory, do you lose it? The answer is no. You cannot ever truly remove a memory from your mind permanently. What comes out is a copy of the memory.

The Granger girl... Hermione, conjured a flask and handed it to Harry, who collected the memories quickly. When the flask was full to the brim, all the memories collected, Severus allowed his hands to fall to his side.

"Look... at... me..." He said, gasping for breath, desperate to see Lily's eyes one last time. The green eyes found the black, and Severus drew his last breath, Lily's perfume the last thing he would smell, her eyes the last thing he would see.


	2. An Explanation

**I'd just like to explain a couple things. **

**First of all, I'd like to thank PheonixWormwood137 for showing me the Gryffindor scarf in the movie. Yes, if you look closely, it's actually in the movie. Second, while it's not mentioned in the books, it could totally be there. **

**Now, about the whole flower thing. At first, her favorite flower was going to be a lily, but then I thought: A. what the heck does a lily smell like? B. a lot of girls have self-esteem issues. Why shouldn't lily? And therefore, if she did, a lily wouldn't be her favorite flower. Why a rose? Because 1. They smell nice, and 2. They are romantic. But you're asking the question why yellow. Well, there are a couple of reasons. 1st, some people say that the colors of roses have meanings. I looked it up on the internet, and yellow normally means joy, or friendship, or something. (Look up Rose Color Meanings, if you really care. Just Google it). Red is the one that means love. But i didn't want Severus to leave red roses. Partly because other people visit their graves, it would be weird if it was a red rose, which is often seen as the most romantic, even to people who haven't looked it up. Plus, red is kind of cliché. Sorry people who adore red roses. I like them a lot too. (Although I prefer white, which symbolizes purity, and that totally didn't fit with the situation). Anyways, so I remembered reading in a book (princess diaries. the 3rd one) that the yellow ones meant love everlasting, and i was like: YES! That is perfect for my story! So yah. **

**Next, about how Snape thought he had come to terms with death and then it turned out he hadn't. So basically, the past 16 he's been a double agent against the most dangerous mad man/dark wizard the world has ever seen. Not to mention one who is really good at that mind reading thing that starts with L that I can't spell. So basically, if he is found out, he is dead. End of story. So he's been skirting death for 16 years. But now he's staring it in the face, and knows he has minutes left to live. I don't know about you, but I'd be slightly panicky. **

**Finally, why did I make Snape partly figure out the elder wand thing? Well, it's simple really; HE'S ABOUT TO DIE! I think he deserves a little hope.**

**I really hope you enjoyed this story, and I'd like to thank my little sister for editing it =D. Thanks for reading!**


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